torture

This past Sunday, former VP Dick Cheney admitted to war crimes in an interview: Other supporters of waterboarding include the Spanish Inquisition, the Gestapo, and the Khmer Rouge. After World War II, we convicted Japanese soldiers for war crimes for waterboarding American POWs. By affirming...

'The Guantánamo “Suicides”: A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle' http://harpers.org/archive/2010/01/hbc-90006368 “taking their own lives was not necessary, but it certainly is a good P.R. move.” - Colleen Graffy, a deputy assistant secretary of state. “They have no regard for human...

I read an interesting article a couple of years ago, that proposed an answer to why there's so much war in the world. Some of the things it said were rather controversial, but it might well be right to a large extent about this, although naturally war can have multiple causes. It mentioned some...

Well like this should be a shock to anyone: Canada complicit in torture of innocent Afghans, diplomat says In a damning indictment of how Canada handled prisoners early in its southern Afghan mission, a government whistleblower says all captives that Canadian soldiers transferred to local...

Let 'em do it. ... No, bear with me here, and pardon me if I get any legal aspects wrong. Consider the concept of the "citizen's arrest." Those nutbags who tried to detain Dick Cheney aside, this is the legal construction that allows a citizen witnessing a crime to temporarily assume the power...

I would not have imagined giving a Nobel Peace Prize to a person who continues Bush's policy of Rendition (torture). How do you feel about Obama's rendition policy? President Obama has recently ratified continuation of the U.S. rendition policy -- removal of terrorist suspects by extra-legal...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ij-XF4zu-AF4LZq8waEsX2Hn0HOgD9ARQB1G0

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8158087.stm BBC clip of US military condemning the treatment of US Soldier captured by the Taliban. Certainly, what the Taliban does with this poor man will probably be a crime, dispcable and immoral...but if they water-board him, put him in stress...

I have been in a discussion with Jihad Jane in another thread, and I felt it appropriate to move it here. JJ claims (or at least, suggests) that the primary basis for believing the 9/11 was carried out by middle eastern terrorists was testimony obtained through torture. I asked several...

In various water-boarding threads, the pro-boarders have all but admitted that water-boarding is torture. Most of them have brought up effectiveness and efficiency as part of their argument as to why it's ok to do, thus evading the actual argument as to whether it's torture or not. However...

UN expresses concern about Tasers in NZ Okay, so hopefully we can move on from debating waterboarding, which is quite obviously being utilised as torture, and into an area where I think there actually is room to debate. New Zealand is about to introduce tasers for frontline police officers in...

So in contrast to that conservative idol coward Hannity, Mancow actually tried out how it does feel to get waterboarded [Hint: Before it he thought it's no big deal] : qUkj9pjx3H0 [While I don't see why it should be a NSFW-tagged video, I appreciate if a Mod/Admin add's a Tag or sends me a PM...

There is no written version of this CNN-Report yet, but even if we heard of all the torture methods beyond waterboarding in the past in occasional reports, a full scale discussion about all those other methods didn't emerge yet. If it does, it might be the final blow to the GOP...

It seems to me that it is becoming clear that those convicted for the photo's of the so called abuses in Abu Graib were not doing anything remarkably worse than many others. It seems incredibly wrong that they should have been convicted when others who did the same things are being protected by...

A little historical perspective

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/12/prisoner.photos/index.html We're told that these photos are of "abuse" or "humiliation" but not "torture". One point I've wondered about is that some of these incidents involve forcing the prisoners to do degrading acts (masturbation, and so on). How...

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/05/023513.php I insist that all those who knew about and approved the waterboarding of KSM and the other two terrorists face an American jury. I also insist that they show us, during that trial, whether the waterboarding worked and caused the 3...

[URL="http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/it-criminal-yet-human-rights-report-u"] Did anyone hear about this before? After all, the report is from 2006.

I've heard/read people saying the U.S. has never tortured. I don't know if I believe this. I'm referring to "approved" torture, not the random, in-the-field torturing that I've seen in at least one video clip of waterboarding from Viet Nam. What do we really know about the history of torture as...

Seeming to answer my own question I believe waterboarding is a form of torture. However since no danger of drowning nor permanent physical damage is done some people say it really isn't torture. No disjointed limbs, no damage to the body at all. If you have a person in custody who knows...

I am using the following definition of torture:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/30/religion.torture/index.html#cnnSTCText Poll results here. Ethics of torture aside, this seems a pretty interesting finding. Have no idea what it all means. Similar poll from last fall had this curious finding:

I am just wondering whether serving in the military effects one's attitudes toward torture. I am a veteran and consider it a crime.

CIA Confirms: Waterboarding 9/11 Mastermind Led to Info that Aborted 9/11-Style Attack on Los Angeles ---------- The Central Intelligence Agency told CNSNews.com today that it stands by the assertion made in a May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo that the use of “enhanced techniques” of...

Breach of Rule 12 removed. I'm rather liberal in my mindset so this may be an odd position I take. Here is my response: Criticize away and discuss.

So Cheney admits to approving it for KSM. If we had Japanese leaders executed for this action as a warcrime, are we now saying that it is no longer a war crime? Or just one that we, the US, are only allowed to use? Thoughts?

This is how bad it is: Unfortunately there is no way to independently verify this (which is not to say that I doubt it, just that there is no way to independently verify it).

Interesting Glenn Greenwaldd column in Salon today, "Porn producer invokes the Bush/Yoo defense--unsuccessfully." Also: Hatch was responsible for the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), which allows "dietary supplements" to be marketed freely, with virtually no federal...

Apparently Air America's Randi suggests that McCain collaborated with his captors and in return was treated pretty well by them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt8Sgt6K9YE

Wow, didn't know they disagree that much with McCain's heroic past... Video